Partnership/affiliation status is an almost automatic process that's tied to your metrics (hours streamed, etc), so it's not some hard cap on popularity.
> Partnership/affiliation status is an almost automatic process
Emphasis on almost. It requires an application and approval. Most importantly, being an affiliate/partner is not appealing to some people, since you have to sign an exclusivity contract.
They'll also force you to play a certain amount of ads. I've watched some streamers who wouldn't show any ads because they were making enough money on subscriptions and donations that they didn't want to make anyone watch them. Within the past year though, they've said that twitch told them they need to start showing ads, so they'll tell everyone to take a bathroom break or turn on an adblocker for the next couple of minutes.
The process is also rather arbitrary. If a streamer has barely any viewers but is a friend of a popular streamer, they'll get partnered almost immediately, but a "nobody" streamer that regularly has hundreds of viewers will get denied until they've been streaming for a long time. They'll also ban you if you tell anyone why you were denied.
